All over America, February is the month dedicated to the celebration
of Black History. In San Francisco and in Berkeley two notable Black History
Month celebrations have already taken place.

The San Francisco event was held at the Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts ___ a beautiful venue ___ with lots of food and nearly 400 black
people in attendance was presented by the Executive Roundtable and sponsored by
Ernst & Young. But contrary to its announced purpose, this event did not celebrate
any historic contributions made by black Americans nor did it discuss any of
the significant political or legal contributions made to the American mosaic by
black people. Not even the Executive
Roundtable’s printed program provided any visual commemoration of Black History
or black people. The Executive Roundtable merely used this occasion as an
opportunity to sell a black audience on the idea of corporate service by
recognizing those black executives who had risen to the inner circles of
corporate power. The Executive Roundtable’s Black History celebration showcased
five of the infinitesimally small number of Negroes who are fortunate enough to
be chosen by mentors ___ now they are being called “sponsors” ___ to be
promoted into the ranks of top corporate executives. These Negroes were being
recognized for hobnobbing with the directors, CEOs and other multi-millionaires
and doing their bidding.

In his keynote address, YBCA’s
Director of Performing Arts, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, did not extol Black History. Rather
he raised not a few eyebrows even in an audience filled with black “corporate
ladder” climbers when he said that his efforts and the efforts of his team of
artists, writers and influence peddlers were aimed at bringing about a cultural
renaissance of art and music in what he hoped would be the post hip/hop era. Joseph
proudly keynoted the evening’s theme announcing to his audience that: “When the
directors of the Yerba Buena Arts Center, first saw my performance, they knew
that they needed ME on their staff. And when they interviewed ME, behind ME,
they had a picture of [guess who] … ME.”

Joseph’s keynote was not lost on any of the other panelists
of black corporate executives. Each of them tried to outdo the others in reciting
their tales of accomplishment their individual corporate plantations. Each tale was a celebration of the ME. One panelist even admitted that, at
an earlier stage in his career, the “Uncle
Tom” label concerned him. But his “sponsor” __ then known as his mentor __ counseled him to seek his own personal
success and let the others take care of themselves. Another panelist told about
a “mistake” he had made during his career. He had prematurely celebrated a promotion
that he learned about through his access to top-secret information while
serving as an officer in the Air Force on a classified military installation. All
the panelists echoed the keynote of me, Me, ME! Sadly this celebration of “black
history” was nothing more than a fit of self-congratulations by individuals who
had long since shed their racial identity for corporate success. It was not a
celebration of Black history but of black “tokenism” and with the black
unemployment rate running at 50% for black males, it’s message was: I made it, why can’t they?

Two days later, the Community Theater hosted Berkeley’s
first Black History Month celebration. Presented and organized by the Berkeley
Juneteenth Association, this event sought to educate and heal the Berkeley
community and its surrounding environs by bringing peoples of different cultures
together in a celebration of joy and friendship. Ken Tramiel, president of the
Juneteenth Board of Directors and organizer of the Black History event sought to
promote social growth and community cohesiveness by involving peoples of color
in a set of unique historical, family, business and cultural activities
celebrating Black History. The Juneteeth Board of Directors aggressively brought
together participants from everywhere. Dancers and singers from Berkeley High
School, educators and lecturers from the University of California and other
local colleges, gospel choirs and even a film producer all played essential
roles in this celebration of black people’s contribution to the American
mosaic.

Berkeley’s program was divided into four parts: The
Creation, Enslavement and Freedom, The Civil Rights Era and The
New Generation. One of the highlights of the day was Doug Harris’ film about
William Byron Rumford, the black assemblyman from Berkeley, for whom
California’s Fair Housing Law is named. In addition, all sorts of vendors were given
an opportunity to sell their wares including my own, Oakland Publishing
Company, LLC.

The highlight of the day for me was when, out of the crowd of
black history celebrants, appeared my classmate from grammar school, Peter
LaTorre. Pete had driven all the way from Patterson, California, in the rain,
to support this wonderful community event. Pete, who is still recovering from the
emergency heart surgery that he underwent while visiting his family in Italy, drove
the hundred miles from Patterson to Berkeley because, as he said, he believes that people of goodwill,
everywhere, must support each other. So he came to Berkeley to support me and
buy a couple of my books. And so it was on a rainy Saturday in Berkeley, that
my good friends, Ken Tramiel and Peter LaTorre, and many, many others celebrated
Black History Month, demonstrating that ___even though we live in a time of
darkness ____ the basic humanity and goodness of an energized community is
fully engaged against political wickedness and corporate greed.